Cruz Flores ‘Bruja’ Gets Life for MS-13 Throat-Slitting Murder

Cruz Flores, a 30-year-old Bound Brook, New Jersey man known as “Bruja,” is behind bars for life after being sentenced for a blood-soaked execution ordered by MS-13 leadership. The Plainfield Locos Salvatruchas (PLS) clique member was convicted of slicing the throat, beating with a bat, and stabbing a fellow gang associate 17 times in May 2011 — all because the victim was seen talking to members of the 18th Street gang.

Flores was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering and murder in aid of racketeering — counts 18 and 19 of a sprawling 26-count federal indictment returned in September 2013. The 16-week trial in Newark federal court, overseen by U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler, laid bare the gang’s brutal internal code: loyalty or death. The victim’s fatal mistake? Socializing with rivals. The order came down — the “green light” — and Flores carried it out with a bat and a blade.

MS-13, formally known as “La Mara Salvatrucha,” operates as a violent transnational criminal enterprise with cliques spread across the U.S., including deep roots in Union, Somerset, and Middlesex Counties. The Plainfield Locos Salvatruchas clique was founded by Santos Reyes-Villatoro, a/k/a “Mousey,” also of Bound Brook. The gang enforces discipline through terror, and Flores’s actions were not rogue — they were policy.

Of the 14 individuals charged alongside Flores in the 2013 indictment, 13 have now been convicted and sentenced. One remains a fugitive, still dodging federal justice. The sweep reflects years of coordinated pressure from law enforcement agencies determined to dismantle the gang’s grip on communities. U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman called the sentence a victory for public safety, but one earned through relentless investigation.

The probe was led by FBI Newark, under Special Agent in Charge Timothy Gallagher, with critical support from ICE-HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations. Local prosecutors from Union, Somerset, and Middlesex Counties provided sustained collaboration, while police departments in Plainfield, Elizabeth, North Plainfield, Union County, and even Prince George’s County, Maryland, lent boots on the ground. The U.S. Marshals Service and prosecutor offices in Virginia and Maryland also played key roles.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys James M. Donnelly and J. Jamari Buxton prosecuted the case from the Newark office, backed by Kevin L. Rosenberg, former Trial Attorney in the DOJ’s Organized Crime and Gang Section. Flores’s defense was handled by David Ruhnke, Esq., and Linwood Jones, Esq. But no argument could undo the evidence: a premeditated, ritualistic killing in service of a violent street empire. Life in prison is the final verdict.